Commonly known as peaks, the visors on dirt bike helmets have gotten a lot of curiosity from people in recent days. If you are one of those curious people, you are at the right place to look for the answer.
So, why do dirt bike helmets have a visor? The primary purpose is to keep your face safe from all the dirt and mud you come across on-track racing. But it can also help you to see clearly on a bright sunny day as well as a rainy day. Besides, there is protection against any kind of fall!
I guess you are curious to know more! So, let’s dive into the content and know more about why do dirt bike helmets have visors.
Table of Contents
What Is A Dirt Bike Helmet Visor Made From?
You can always expect a number of varieties on the design and production of dirt bike helmet visors. While some of the visors are made with semi-rigid but strong plastic, there are some complicated ones that will clip the helmet to your forehead. However, in most cases, the visor turns out to be removable. And that means you can unclip it any time from your helmet.
Additionally, there are some dirt bike helmets in the market that is manufactured from carbon and soft fiber kind of material. In these cases, they paint and color-code the visor so that it seems compatible with the helmet. These visors can be removed. But you will need to use some tools to do that. But again, they are better than the ones that are not removable!
Most of the dirt bike helmets that don’t have a visor are used for more recreational trail riders. Because you don’t have to encounter much dirt in those places.
Why Do Dirt Bike Helmets Have A Visor?
Well, it’s pretty much obvious that your helmet will have a visor to protect your face from any hit. Now, many people actually ask, why do dirt bike helmets have a visor? Certainly, in a dirt bike helmet, the visor is actually there to keep your face safe from all the dirt and mud you will be facing in a track environment against other riders. Ever heard of a roost?
A roost actually means a rooster tail which comes from the arching spray shape the dirt and mud take when the rider ahead of you is kicking up. Well, the spray somewhat resembles a rooster tail, so it took up the name roost!
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Now, seasoned riders will surely have a dirt bath from the rooster tail, but the visor manages to keep your face from taking in the spray of dirt. Having dirt directly in your face can result in a number of injuries like face cuts or clogged goggles.
Furthermore, the visor can also help to keep the sunlight out of your sight. It kind of works like a baseball cap and allows you to see perfectly even on a tough sunny day. However, this is only applicable in the morning or late afternoons when the sun burns at its best.
I heard many people wondering about the fact that a dirt bike helmet’s visor can’t catch the wind to forward it over your head. But what they don’t know is that this feature could have made your day a lot worse on a dirt track.
So, let’s know about the uses of the dirt bike helmet visor in brief:
Sun Protection: As I have mentioned before, the visor can be great in protecting your gaze from direct sunlight. It will help you see in too bright days and keep your concentration intact.
Water Protection: Your riding situation can change greatly depending on the change of weather and time. So, if you are a rainy seasoned racer, the visor can be a real blessing for you. With all the dirt and then added water, your day can get a lot worse without a helmet a visor.
Undoubtedly, the visor will protect your skin and eyes from stinky dirt and help you have a fair race.
Protection from branches of trees: Off-road riding while balancing can be fun. But the fun can get interrupted easily when an unexpected branch hits you out of the blue.
In this situation, my first thought would have been to save my face first. I hope yours is not so different. So, you can guess how lucky you would be to have a visor on your face to save you!
Protection from Fall: Falling off your bike must be one of the most common accidents that happen to people. So, you should be careful all the time as well as take precautions for it. You might guess that the visor can be of great help in this case because a fall might lead to temporary injury to your body parts. But anything on the face is sure to leave out a mark.
So, here goes another great use of the dirt bike helmet visor!
Keeps the bug away: Getting disturbed by a bug during a race is one of the worst things that can happen to you. You can get distracted and fall off the track or get behind. So, to save you from that trouble, a visor will help to keep all the bugs away from your face, thus, helping you to keep your concentration.
Protection from dust and stones: Well, you know that the ultimate use of a visor is to keep your face safe from the dirt and mud of the track. The same goes on with the dust and stones.
So, hopefully, this sums up the answer to your question about why do dirt bike helmets have visors?
Why Don’t They Have Face Shields?
The face shield mostly means the full-face helmet visors. They are mostly a piece of curved plastic that holds the fort up against flying mud, wind, stones, or other dirt. But you don’t get this kind of protection with the dirt bike helmets, and that’s because it doesn’t have any use on the dirt racing tracks.
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In these cases, the face shields would get fogged up pretty quickly, making it difficult for the rider’s vision. So, mostly it’s unpractical.
However, the dirt bike helmets come with goggles instead of the dace shield for ensuring maximum protection against airflow and keep you cool as well as ventilated.
Is the Dirt Bike Helmet Visor Really Necessary?
It’s normal to get curious if you really need a dirt bike helmet visor or it’s just for extra protection. The answer is, it depends on the type of racing you do the most.
If you are a frequent dirt track racer, the visor can be more than necessary, mostly due to the protection against the roost. However, if you are more of an off-road trail racer, the visor doesn’t have much to do. But it will still be handy in the sun.
On the other hand, if you use the street as well as off-roads regularly, a dirt bike helmet is not enough. You will need a street bike helmet for the city and suburban rides, as well as a dirt bike helmet for the off-roads.
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It might seem like extra expenses at first, but you will soon realize that the street bike helmet and dirt bike helmet will not work in vice-versa. They will be quite uncomfortable and will not keep your face safe from certain things.
So, you should remember that most motorbike helmets are purpose-built and will work perfectly in the intended environment only.
But it’s true that the dirt bike helmet visor is only important when you are a frequent participant of competitive style dirt bike racing.
Final Words
So, this article’s sole purpose was to answer the question: why do dirt bike helmets have a visor? I really hope I was able to answer this perfectly and you got to know everything you were looking for!
